Typical currently known security systems generally include an on site control device such as a control panel. The control panel may include a microprocessor with software or firmware designed for monitoring one or more sensors designated to specified areas. The sensors may be divided into security zones which are all monitored by the central control panel. The control panel is a significant cost of the security system. The security system, including the control panel, requires installation, inspections, maintenance, repairs, and upgrades. The control panel hardware can be expensive and the installation requires the time of a skilled technician. Further, when updating the software or firmware, a technician has to visit the site where the security system and control panel are located, which is costly and time consuming. Additionally, it is possible that upgrading the security system requires additional hardware or changing hardware to enable new features or functions, which can be costly and require the time of a skilled technician. Further, a supplier and/or warehouse may have to stock large quantities of various panel types to meet demand, thus incurring cost.
In many such security systems, persistent storage has been required, with such requirements met by battery-backed RAM systems or EEPROM memory devices. However, as the memory/storage requirements for such systems have grown, such systems have increasingly used flash IC storage systems. While flash IC storage systems provide more storage capacity per cost unit, they are more limited that the RAM systems and EEPROM memory devices. Thus, while RAM systems will almost instantaneously save data an unlimited number of times and EEPROM memory devices (though slower than RAM systems) are capable of writing millions of individual bytes or words per memory cell, the advantageously relatively inexpensive flash storage systems are slower still (taking longer to erase and write). Further, the flash storage systems have a limited writable lifespan and require that data be erased and written in large blocks or pages. As a result, in order to use such flash storage systems in security systems, complex management has been necessary to handle and write data efficiently in order to be able to minimize the read/write cycles which occur during normal operation of the security system,
United States Patent Publication No. US 2009/0322527 A1 (entitled “Server Based Distributed Security System”, published Dec. 31, 2009) discloses one system which may be used for handling the memory requirements of security systems.
The present invention is directed to providing the memory and data storage requirements of a security system whereby the life of the hardware may be maximized.